Privacy policy
Last updated: 11 November 2026 · Version 1.0
Tab Sleeper is a Chrome extension by isabilov. that suspends tabs you are not using, with Chrome's own built-in method (chrome.tabs.discard).
The short version
Tab Sleeper has no servers, no account, no analytics and no ads. It sends nothing anywhere. Everything it needs stays in your browser.
What Tab Sleeper reads, and why
- Your open tabs (address, title, pinned, playing audio, suspended, which tab is active, when you last used each tab). Used on your device to decide which tabs to suspend and to show "Protected: …" and the suspended count. Tab addresses are not saved, except sites you add yourself to "Sites that never sleep".
- Unsaved text in forms (optional, off by default). Only if you turn on "Tabs with unsaved text in forms" and allow access in Chrome's prompt. A small script on web pages then notes that a text field was edited, as a yes/no flag per tab. It runs in the page and its frames and keeps the flag per open document, so a new page starts clean. It never reads, stores or sends what you typed. Turning the setting off stops the script in open pages, removes it, and gives the access back to Chrome.
- Page titles (only if you turn on "Show 💤 on sleeping tabs" and allow site access). Just before a tab sleeps, Tab Sleeper adds "💤 " in front of the page title, so you can see sleeping tabs. It changes only the title, reads nothing else, and the page restores its own title when it wakes. It is off until you choose it (suggested on the first screen, also in Settings and the popup); Chrome asks for the access once. Turning it off (and form protection off) gives the access back; removing the access in Chrome turns it off.
- Tab icons in the popup's sleeping list come from Chrome's own icon cache on your device.
What Tab Sleeper stores
- In Chrome's local extension storage on your device: your settings (time before suspending, protections, your site list, a pause end time, "first-run seen").
- In Chrome's session storage (deleted when Chrome closes): when each tab was last used, the unsaved-text flags, and the tabs from your last manual action (for Undo) and its result line.
- Nothing is synced to other devices. Removing the extension deletes all of it. Your tabs themselves are not affected: suspended tabs stay in your tab bar.
What leaves your browser
Nothing, by Tab Sleeper. When a suspended tab reloads, Chrome loads that page from its website as it normally would.
The "Report a bug" link opens a Google Form in a new tab with only the extension name and version filled in. Opening it is like visiting any Google page; what you write reaches isabilov. only if you submit the form (Google's privacy policy applies to the form). "by isabilov." opens isabilov.com.
Incognito
Tab Sleeper does not run in Incognito windows (it can't be allowed there), so nothing from private browsing is read or stored.
Permissions
tabs, storage, alarms, contextMenus, scripting, favicon; optional access to http and https pages only for form protection. See the Store listing for one-line reasons.